Originally Posted by coyote
Like Alrik said, fighting is not an essential part of an RPG for me as well, although I do enjoy some challenging fights. Unfortunately, the pixel hunting and extremely linear advancement by randomly combining inventory items with the environment in order to recreate the weird chains of thought of some developer destroyed the adventure game genre for me. RPGs didn't have that even in the elder times.

Fighting is brought through the role of the character. Non fighting roles leads to combat as an non essential feature. No limit to what kind of role one can play in a RPG.

this list

A captivating story, interesting characters, well written dialogue, locations I wanted and had the chance to explore, choices that mattered, creative and distinct spells and so on.

contains features RPGs can exist without.

A RPG does not require a story (no matter the quality) as what matters is the RP situations the player is provided with. A game world can generate RP situations without having any story.
Etc…